We were pleased to make a submission to the UN Special Rapporteur (Philip Alston) ahead of his visit to the UK this month. Mr Alston is looking at the links between poverty and human rights in the UK and our submission shows a situation in the UK where inequality is worsening poverty and adversely affecting human rights across our society. In our conclusions we note that: 

The UK is a deeply divided society. We have a very high and entrenched level of inequality that was established during the 1980s and has not been reduced in any material way since then. Accordingly, we have a high level of poverty which is also seemingly intractable. The spending cuts pursued by UK governments since 2010 have exacerbated poverty and now look set to increase our level of inequality in coming years. It is hard to see how this will not have further dire consequences for human rights in the UK.

However, we believe that inequality is not inevitable and can be tackled if the political will is there and the correct policies are pursued. At the end of our submission we set out some of the key policies that we advocate as being necessary to reduce inequality in the UK and, thereby, improve life for everyone. Please share this submission across all your networks. Thank you.

The Equality Trust